1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a bonus dispensing system for gaming devices and, more particularly, to a programmable printing and dispensing bonusing system for electronic gaming devices including slot machines, video poker machines and other such electronic gaming devices which includes at least one detection device connected an electronic gaming device, an event detection sampling device in information transmission connection with the detection device operative to identify particular events, a programmable event occurrence information signal computing device connected to the event detection sampling device, the programmable event occurrence information signal computing device operative to output command signals therefrom and a printing/dispensing bonus device connected to said programmable event occurrence information signal computing device operative to output bonus payout information and items resulting from particular combinations being produced by the electronic gaming device.
2. Background Art
Slot machines and video poker machines continue to be the most widely used types of gaming devices found in the gaming industry. The oldest slot machines and video poker machines were relatively simple devices which included little in the way of sound generating devices, commonly including only a bell or buzzer to signify a winning combination on the reels. With the advent of new technology in the gaming industry, the slot machines and video poker machines were now able to produce a variety of pre-programmed sounds through the use of computer chip technology. These chips are most often constructed as integral parts of the gaming device and are programmed at the factory to produce a limited number of sounds in response to events such as a winning combination coming up on the reels. The sounds produced by the machine can be of high quality through the use of efficient loudspeaker systems.
In spite of the use of such new technology, one of the major disadvantages found in the prior art regarding the sounds produced by the slot machine has gone unaddressed. Specifically, because the chips are programmed by the factory, the sounds and payouts produced by the machine cannot be changed by the customer, i.e., the casino. The sounds and payouts produced by the gaming device thus are always the same, absent game modifications, and the gaming public may lose interest in play of the machine due to the lack of any changes in the output of the machine when winning combinations are produced. It is important to understand that on most machines the sound and payout information and the payout tables are programmed on the same chip. If a user of the gaming device wishes to modify the sounds or bonuses produced by the machine, the chip containing the sound bytes must be “reburned” or reprogrammed by the factory or the casino. The reprogramming of the chip, however, will mandate review and testing of the chip by an independent testing laboratory and/or by the state gaming commission to confirm that nothing on the chip was modified except for the sounds themselves. Obviously, if retesting of the chip each time the smallest change in sound or bonuses designated by the chip is necessary, no casino location will wish to go through the process due to the length of time and expense of development and testing involved. There is, therefore, a need for a device for inclusion in a gaming device which is capable of being quickly and easily reprogrammed to produce a different sound or bonus payout in response to a particular event occurrence, and which does not require retesting by an agent of the gaming commission each time a new sound or bonus is included.
It is thus seen that a disadvantage of the prior art is that the sound-producing devices found in gaming devices cannot be modified by the casino to produce alternative sounds. However, it is a further disadvantage of the prior art that the sound-generating devices on all but the newest machines are often technologically insufficient to produce such sounds as human speech and difficult-to-reproduce sounds. It therefore may be desirable to enhance the sound-producing capabilities of the gaming device by “adding on” a more sophisticated sound card. Due to restrictive gaming regulations, however, any such add-on sound card would have to be incapable of influencing the outcome probabilities of the gaming device, thus requiring a type of detection means for detecting specific event occurrences on the electronic circuit board or the reels of the gaming device. At present, such read-only detection devices are not found in the prior art, as most, if not all, of the sound-producing devices found in the prior art are integrated into the gaming device and such read-only detection devices are not necessary. With the rapid improvement in sound cards, however, the need for non-intrusive read-only detection devices for use in combination with an add-on sound card has arisen. There is therefore a need for such a read-only detection device used in combination with an add-on sound card.
One of the most recent innovations in gaming is the multi-machine jackpot, such as Quartermania, Megabucks and Cool Millions. In these games, a bank of gaming machines are connected to one another in information transmission connection such that coin input at each of the machines adds to an overall jackpot which can be hit on the any of the machines in the group. These wide-area progressive games have acted to increase game play thus increasing the handle of the casino. The disadvantage to such wide-area progressive games is that the casino is again prevented from modifying the sound or bonusing output of the machine when a jackpot or other winning combination is achieved. The casino may desire to formulate its own location-specific games, such as treasure hunts or other such games, in which the treasure would be “found” by a specific reel combination turning up on the machine. Should such a reel combination come up on the machine, the player would be notified by casino-specific sounds emanating from the machine. It also may be desirable to have “treasure hunts” between multiple casino locations having wide-area progressive games, but again the sounds emitted by the machine must be modified to reflect the new game play. Obviously, the sounds included in the machine from the factory are not designed with this type of option in mind, and it would be necessary for the casino to be able to interrupt the ordinary sound production of the gaming device and substitute its own desired sound output for particular event occurrences. It is believed that the variety offered by such sound variations will significantly increase “coin in” on the various machines due to the heightened interest in the modified games.
Another disadvantage found in those devices representative of the prior art is that when an update of sound produced is desired, the chip carrying the sounds must be reprogrammed or “reburned”. As was stated previously, on many machines the audio files are stored on and played by the same chip that controls the payouts and pay tables for the machine. Therefore, each time the chip is reprogrammed to issue new sounds, the modified chip must be retested by an independent laboratory and/or the state authorities. Obviously, a casino organization which has invested millions of dollars in slot machines does not wish to lose the use of the slots for a period of time during testing each time the sounds produced by the machine are modified. There is therefore a need for an easily updatable and reprogrammable sound-producing device for use in slot machines and the like that will increase the usable life span of the slot machine and, more importantly, require only a single round of testing when initially added to the machine.
There are several examples of devices in machines proposed in the prior art which attempt to increase the amount of “coin in” by increasing interest in the games. For example, Nishikawa, U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,399, discloses a device for generating an impact sound for a slot machine, the device intentionally producing an impact sound when reels start to be rotated by motors. Clearly, however, this device cannot be modified in any meaningful way to produce a variety of sounds and thus its application to the gaming industry is limited.
It has also been found that there is a substantial interest in the development of a bonusing system for electronic gaming devices which outputs bonus items, the items either having intrinsic value or being representative of the bonus received and which are redeemable for the indicated bonus. As was stated previously, any such add-on electronic activity detector would have to be incapable of influencing the outcome probabilities of the gaming device, and thus a uni-directional detection device for detecting specific event occurrences on the electronic circuit board would be preferred. In a typical slot machine, there are numerous machine event occurrences which would need to be sampled in order to determine whether the particular event has occurred. These include such occurrences as a bill accepted into the machine, a jackpot being hit, coin in, coin out and other display data. Each of these machine inputs and outputs would need to be monitored to determine event occurrences, but must be monitored in such a way that the event occurrence cannot be tampered with in order to conform to applicable gaming regulations. Therefore, as was stated previously, there is a need for an electronic activity detector and command generator which is capable of detecting event occurrences on the circuit board of a gaming device and then issue appropriate demands in response to those event occurrences which will cause connected output devices to perform designated tasks.
By way of clarification, the electronic activity detecting portion of the card is that portion of the card that will identify that an event is taking place within the machine (i.e., coin in, jackpot. etc. . . . ), and the command portion of the card is that portion which recognizes the event and dictates the proper response. Although it is expected that one of the major output functions of any card performing these functions would be that of sound reproduction, there is also a need for other types of outputs, including printer functions, lights and gaming information. It is important to note that there are no devices found in the prior art which can be connected to one or more output devices such as a sound card, a printer, a set of lights or a player's card information system. There is therefore a need for a device which can read and react to gaming machine outputs, and, depending on the programming of the device, output the appropriate command signals to output devices to drive the output devices to perform their respective functions without affecting the regulated components of the gaming device.
At the present time, bonuses on gaming devices are delivered through the standard payment mechanism of an individual machine. For example, if a specific reel combination is hit for 25 coins plus a spin of the bonus wheel, the wheel will spin and stop on a number or multiplier in an apparently random fashion (i.e., if it stops on 50 coins then a total of 75 coins were won). However, the total payment of 75 coins was predetermined at the time the reel combination was hit, and therefore in cases like this the bonuses are not really “bonuses” but rather a split payment of the actual payout with one part of the split payment having the appearance of a bonus.
It has also been found that increased game play can result from the dispensing or paying of bonuses in connection with particular reel or display combinations on the electronic gaming device being hit. Such bonusing items could include plush toys, vouchers for meals, cash, lottery tickets, coupons, promotional materials, other prizes or almost any other type of prize award. At the present time, the prior art does not disclose the dispensing or printing of a bonus item from a secondary output device not directly associated with the standard payment device on the gaming device, most commonly a coin or scrip dispenser, the bonus being dispensed in connection with a predetermined event or series of events occurring on the gaming device, such as coin in or a particular combination being “hit” on the electronic gaming device. There is therefore a need for such a bonusing system which would both increase game play and decrease the dissatisfaction of the consumer, as a reel combination that is not ordinarily a payout combination may result in the obtaining of bonus prizes.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing and dispensing bonusing system for electronic gaming devices.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing and dispensing bonusing system for electronic gaming devices which includes at least one detection device adapted for connection to an electronic apparatus which is operative to detect selected event occurrences on the electronic apparatus and output event occurrence notification signals upon detection of an event.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing and dispensing bonusing system for electronic gaming devices which includes an event detection sampling device in information transmission connection with the detection devices, the event detection sampling device operative to receive and detect the event occurrence notification signals from the detection devices, analyze the signals and output event occurrence information signals specifying the occurrence of a preselected event or events on the electronic apparatus circuit board.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing and dispensing bonusing system for electronic gaming devices which includes a programmable event occurrence information signal computing device in information transmission connection with the event detection sampling device, the computing device operative to receive and analyze event occurrence information signals output by the event detection sampling device and upon detection of event occurrence information signals, output command signals for initiating operation of a printing and dispensing device connected to the programmable event occurrence information signal computing device, the printing and dispensing device operative to dispense or print a bonus item or information from a secondary output device not directly associated with the standard coin or scrip dispenser, the bonus being dispensed in connection with at least one event occurring on the electronic gaming device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing and dispensing bonusing system for electronic gaming devices which may be quickly and easily reprogrammed to produce different outputs in response to the same reel combinations turning up on the machine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing and dispensing bonusing system for electronic gaming devices, particularly a casino gaming device, which is capable of sampling event occurrences on the circuit board of the gaming device that is clearly incapable of influencing the outcome of any gaming event in the gaming device, thus permitting the electronic activity detector and command generator to be added to gaming machines while requiring only minimal inspection by a gaming commission or its agent. Future operational modifications will not require reinspection by the gaming commission or its agent.
Finally, another object of the present invention is to provide a printing and dispensing bonusing system for electronic gaming devices which is durable in construction and safe and efficient in use.